WARNING: This post is extremely long. I hope it's interesting to someone, but it's a bit of a read, so be warned.As some of you might already know, I was stranded in Cork, Ireland because of the volcanic eruption and the closed airspace that followed. I ultimately decided to go home by ground/sea transportation.
So I wanted to do a kind of basic rundown write-up of my trip ever since I got back. I tried to document most of it with my iPhone, didn't always have time or care enough to do it, though. It was a pretty grueling trip but it would have been much worse if I had been alone. Luckily I had traveling companions up until Paris.
(map not completely accurate, these are actually driving directions, but it's just to give you a feeling of how far I came)
Sunday, 7:00 AM - I wake up in my hotel room, turn on the news. It's obvious my backup flight has been cancelled, total no-fly zone over the UK and Ireland until at least Monday afternoon. I get upset, call my husband in a fit of rage. Decide to go eat breakfast downstairs to talk to my colleagues and clear my head.
Sunday, 10:15 AM - I meet my two German colleagues at breakfast, we discuss the situation. We decide it would be best for us to return to our rooms and try to contact the company travel agency to get new flights booked. We agree to meet around lunchtime and take a walk around the city, possibly take a bus somewhere.
Sunday, 10:45 AM - I call the company travel agency and actually get a hold of someone! It's a girl named Lisa. I explain my situation:
Me: "I'm thinking I have a better chance If I try to book some sort of direct flight to Paris or Munich..."
Lisa: "There's nothing available for a while here. I'm sorry. But... you could take the ferry and then different trains all the way back to Zürich."
Me: "I thought the Eurostar and the ferries were booked solid?"
Lisa: "We can arrange it."
Me: "Okay... I have to think about that."
Sunday, 12:00 PM - I meet my two colleagues and we walk across town. The whole time, I have this sinking feeling that I should have said yes to the other option of going home. I knew that time was working against me. It bothered me too much, and I decided to go back to the hotel to call the travel agency back and discuss the exact details of the trip.
Sunday, 1:30 PM - I call the travel agency again and reach someone -- again! This time a guy named Matt. I explained to him what Lisa had told me.
Matt: "I can arrange this for you, but you have to be 100% sure you're going to take this trip."
Me: "Tell me the exact details first please, and then I'll decide."
So he explained to me the details of the journey and I wrote everything down, which looked something like this:
Pretty complicated. He explained to me:
- I had missed the bus from Cork to Rosslare (3 hours drive) but he would be able to arrange a private driver (named Kevin) to take me there. It would cost €180 which the company was luckily going to foot, since I didn't have €180 cash on me at the time.
- He was able to book all trains for me except the ones from Fishguard to Swansea and from Paris to Zürich. The Fishguard ones were to be bought in the train. The TGV from Paris to Zürich I bought online myself.
- If I was going to make this trip I would have to leave at 4:30, which at that point was in two and a half hours.
Then he asked me:
Matt: "Do you know a guy named Olivier?"
Me: "No I don't, why?"
Matt: "He's also working for the company and he's going to be making the exact same journey as you up until Paris. He, however, already left with the bus. But he'll be waiting in Rosslare for the ferry. He was a bit worried about travelling alone I think."
Me: "Give me his number, I will talk to him and meet up with him, we can help each other."
So I called up Olivier, a French dude. I told him I was coming and I would call him when I got to Rosslare. I pack up my shit and wait in the lobby for Kevin to pick me up.
Sunday, 4:30 PM - Kevin shows up right on time, I check out of the hotel, and we get on the road for the 3 hour drive to Rosslare. Kevin was an awesome guy. A real Irishman and a history buff like me. We discussed a lot about Irish history and he pointed out a lot of stuff along the road on the beautiful drive. Really interesting conversation. I thought it was a good start to the trip.
Sunday, 7:30 PM - We arrive at Rosslare and I call Olivier. He tells me that he's waiting in front of the ferry terminal. I step out of the car and wave to find him. I thank Kevin and walk to the terminal with my bags. Introduce myself to Olivier, yeah he works for the same company but in a totally different section. He'd found a French woman who he had actually gone to high school with and was also stranded in Ireland! Her name was Carole. They were both really nice so we stood around and talked and killed time until we were supposed to board the ferry. There were a LOT of stranded people trying to get across.
Sunday, 9:00 PM - We board the ferry and it disembarks. We had first class lounge tickets, so it was very comfortable, we had free coffee, free wifi, we could charge our laptops and our phones and there was a restaurant. We take a seat in the corner of the room near some guy who later started to talk to Olivier and Carole in French. Olivier explained in French that I lived in Zürich, and the guy said to me in Swiss German -- "Me too!" So I got to speak Swiss German for the first time in over a week which was a nice feeling. The Swiss guy, Venanzio, explained that he had no Eurostar or TGV train tickets because he had no laptop with him. My laptop's battery died so he used Olivier's laptop to score train tickets online… on a ferry… in the middle of the fucking ocean. So awesome. And I treated myself (the wine was free!)
Monday, 12:20 AM - We arrive in Fishguard, Wales to a totally packed ferry terminal. People were waiting for the train to Swansea which would arrive at 1:50 and take 3 and a half hours to get there. We take a seat on a bench and talk until the train shows up, which came about 45 minutes early. It was a regional train and reasonably clean. We took the very end carriage which had much less people in it and snagged ourselves a 4-seat area with table next to two Irish ladies who were very funny and sweet. I took out my pillow and slept for about half of the ride.
Monday, 3:30 AM - We arrive in Swansea and have to change trains. This train was much nicer and we all had first class tickets so again we snagged a relatively empty carriage. I took a 4-seater area with Olivier and Venanzio and claimed one side for me so I had 2 seats to lie on. Carole snagged two facing seats on the other side of the aisle. We ladies need our beauty sleep! We had a table with power outlet so we could again charge our laptops and phones (Olivier and me had iPhones so of course the battery was almost dead on them by now, haha).
At about 5:30 AM the businessmen and commuters started to come in and wake us all up, we had to make room for them, so I didn't really sleep much after that. I estimate the entire night I got about 4 hours of sleep.
Monday, 7:30 AM - We arrive in London, Paddington station. I notice that my suitcase got broken at some point -- great. The handle was stuck so I couldn't pull it out anymore. I had to pull it around by the luggage strap, which gave me blisters and sore hands:
So with my busted suitcase we all make our way via the London Underground with all the commuters to St. Pancras station where the Eurostar departs from. Thank god the two Parisians have a subway in their city because Venanzio and me had no idea how to navigate.
Monday, 8:15 AM - Carole has to go -- she managed to get a Eurostar ticket for 9:00 AM so she went to check in. Venanzio's train was at 10:30, and Olivier and my train was at… 4:55 PM. Ugh. Olivier stayed with Venanzio so he could pick up his tickets and be ready to board the train. Meanwhile I went off to find a place to buy a new suitcase. I found one about the same size for £55 so I just bought it, put my stuff in, and had the salesman throw the old one away. Much better. Olivier, Venanzio, and me find a cafe and drink 3 cappuccinos each! I watch the guys' bags while they go to the bathroom to clean up. They come back and we switch, I go to the bathroom and wash my face, brush my teeth, fix my ponytail, put on a bit of makeup. I go back to the cafe and Venanzio leaves for his train shortly after.
So it's just me and Olivier now and 8 hours to kill in London. This part's obviously not too interesting, I'm sure you can imagine. We tried to get tickets for an earlier Eurostar train and I was VERY happy that we were able to wait in the business lineup because the normal lineup was at least 150 people long, if not more, and this was only at 11:00.
I would have been able to change my ticket, but not him, so I decided not to.
We mostly hung around the station, sat outside on the steps in the sun, talked, used our iPhones etc. We considered at one point to go to Piccadilly Circus but as soon as we walked to the bus stop we were like… fuck this, not a good idea. We talked to a lot of other stranded people. And the highlight was sushi for dinner… when I saw the sushi restaurant it was like my salvation… I was praying that Olivier liked sushi too and he replied with a rousing "I love sushi!" Leave it to the French to have good taste!
And after that, somehow the 8 hours was almost over and it was time to check in for the Eurostar, so we went on ahead through security and then to the lounge, where again we were able to charge our electronics.
Monday, 4:55 PM - Olivier and I board the Eurostar and part ways temporarily -- we were in different carriages since I was in business class and he was in first class. We agreed to meet up again in Paris and he'd help me pick up my TGV tickets and point me to my hotel, which was close by, but he explained that that area of Paris was full of thugs and scammers who target tourists.
The Eurostar was shitty, but probably only because I was tired. The seat was uncomfortable, the food was bad, the French businesspeople sitting with me were annoying, and I got no sleep at all.
Monday, 8:30 PM - We arrive at Paris Gare du Nord and i find Olivier. I can tell he was very happy to be home, but I felt a bit uneasy because I was now out of my everyone-speaks-english comfort zone. He helped me make sense of the cryptic ticket machine and I got my TGV tickets for the morning. We walked out together and he walked me half of the way to the hotel, we said goodbye, I owe you one, if you ever come to Zürich/Paris get in touch, etc. Then he headed north and went towards the airport to go pick up his car.
So, of course, on the way to the hotel I got fucking lost EVEN THOUGH I HAD THAT MAP. It was getting dark and I was getting a bit worried. I was just about to call Olivier when some scammer dude approached me and pretended to be a Canadian in distress. I must have looked very obviously lost. I politely told him to screw off and decided to ask at a restaurant where the hotel was. The waiter looked out the window and pointed it out to me -- BAH! It was right across the road from the station Gare de l'Est but the sign was so small I hadn't seen it. So I went there, checked in, took the best-feeling shower of my entire life and fell asleep at around 10 PM.
Tuesday, 5:30 AM - My alarm goes off, I drag myself out of bed, pack up my stuff and head across the street to Gare de l'Est. The direct TGV from Paris to Zürich was booked, so I had to take an earlier train that would go to Strasbourg first and then I would switch trains there.
This part is a blur, I literally slept the entire train ride to Strasbourg. We got there at about 9:30, so I had more than an hour to kill before the train to Zürich would arrive. I got an espresso and a croissant and read my book in the mean time.
Tuesday, 10:50 AM - I get on the TGV to Zürich and at this point I'm getting pretty excited so I couldn't sleep anymore. I read Dürrenmatt the whole time to psych myself up and the time flew by, thankfully. When I looked out the window and saw signs in German it was a great feeling. I really do feel at home in Switzerland.
Tuesday, 1:00 PM - I arrive exactly on time in Zürich, step out of the train, and relief hits me. I'm home, the journey is over. My husband is waiting for me with sandwiches and chocolate. I missed him so much.
We take another train ride -- the last one, yay! -- 20 minutes to get home.
The end.
